Dear School, I Hate You (Maebelle)

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

It was a nice try for her uncle to get her canvas to do artwork on. But so far Harmony hadn't touched them. Doing art work in a pretty white canvas was just too...innocent for Harmony. And although somewhere deep down (real deep down), she appreciated that her uncle knew she liked art, her art was more about taunting the world that making a pretty picture to hang on the fridge.

So she had used some of her Christmas money to buy some more appropriate art supplies. Two cans of bright red spray paint. She was smirking when she bought them, already knowing exactly how to put them to use.

It was a bit cold out as she made her way to the school's sign, but the chill was helpful. Hopefully she could finish up before someone walked by. She stuck out her tongue at the words 'Hammel Institue' so carefully and pristine-ly inscribed before pulling out a can of spray paint and starting her work.

"Stupid school," she mumbled to herself as she started with a huge 'F' to cover up the 'Ha'. She couldn't help but giggle a little as well, even though the sound was childish and un-cool.

As she finished a 'K' she stopped back to admire her work. The sign now read "FREAK Institute". She was shaking up the can wondering what else she could ad when she heard the sound of footsteps.

[Deleted]

Today was quite uneventful. Then again, it had been ever since Christmas break started. Maebelle did not have too much to worry about when it came to the plants around Hammel. Interfering with winter wouldn’t do them good, so she tended to just check on them before heading back home. Or perhaps she could stop by Kieron… because that always sounded more fun than the other option.

Anyway, Mae did cherish the fact that not a lot of students were swarming around the school building. It made her more relaxed upon heading outside with mitten-covered hands tucked deeply into the pockets of her coat. Small clouds slipped past her lips whenever the gardener exhaled, perfectly blending in with the white surroundings.

Except for that red color not too far ahead. Where the Hammel Institute sing should be? With a frown appearing on her face, the brunette increased her step as blue eyes lingered on the girl standing nearby, still holding the paint can.

“Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. HEY!” Maebelle didn’t really think while blurting that out, but she had to say something to end this, right? “What on earth are you doing?” She questioned while having the walking pace develop into a little jog.

“What did you do?!” Dealing with students? Zero experience.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony also cherished that with winter break most of the students weren't milling around Hammel. Although she had gone home for a day to see her mom (the visit was supposed to last an entire weekend, but neither Harmony nor her mother enjoyed themselves), Harmony had spent most of the time just wandering around. And occasionally visiting her uncle just because she was so bored. Not that she liked him or missed him or anything. (Okay maybe just a bit, but she wasn't tellin.)

She whipped around to the sound of someone shouting. More importantly the sound of an adult voice shouting. She considered trying to escape. But one, it was hard to move fast in the snow. Two, she didn't trust her power to work that well when she on the fly. And three, well she figured it'd be a wimp move to run off. And she wasn't a wimp.

"Just a little improvement," Harmony said, standing her ground with one can still in her hand. "What do you think?" She grinned, her finger was still on the nozzle and she considered giving this idiot (she couldn't recall the lady's name or job though Harmony knew she worked at Hammel somewhere) a paint job to match the sign.

"Jeez woman," Harmony continued. "You act like I killed someone."

[Deleted]

Maebelle was incredibly grateful that no attempt had been made to flee the scene, mostly because speeding up her pace some more would lead to everything but grateful situations. Then again, part of her did wish that this girl had taken off. At least that would have saved her having to deal with this. She couldn’t just ignore it, right? While only the gardener, the fact remained that Mae was an adult and that this should at least give her some level of authority over this student. Right. Now all she had to do was convince herself off this.

“Improvement? That’s not improvement! That’s just horrible and rude and why did you have to do that?!” Harmony might as well have killed someone! Maebelle would possibly have reacted the same, since both situations would have been completely new to her. At that remark, she actually gave a shocked chuckle. “It’s almost as bad!”

Shaking her head, the brunette gazed at the sign again and then back at the girl. “You’re going to clean that, right?” Asking was never good. Maybe commanding it would have been a better way to go. “What’s your name?” Because, yes, Mae would rattle on her.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony couldn't help but grin at the woman's description of her improvement of the sign. Horrible, rude, and without reason. Now that sounded like what she'd been aiming for. Of course the reality that there would be a price to pay for her efforts had yet to sink in. For now she was enjoying having an audience, almost proud.

"Geez lady, don't have a cow," Harmony said, holding in a giggle at the woman's reaction. Really it was quite hilarious to see a grown woman flipping out. Harmony cocked her head to once side. "Seriously, you need to get your proprieties straight. This ain't even close to murder, sheesh. It's just a dumb sign for an even dumber school." Harmony crossed her arms, glaring at the woman and daring her to argue that point.

"You gonna make me?" Harmony said, actually going to far to stick out her tongue. She was getting the feeling that this woman was all bark and not bite. And even her bite was more like a chihuahua than anything.

"Um....Tak...um.. Oh-my-no-ago," Harmony said, pulling out the first student name that came to her head and realizing halfway through she had no clue how to pronounce the older girls name. She wasn't even sure she could pick her out of a crowd and only hoped this woman was in the same boat.

[Deleted]

Dumb school? Hopefully Harmony realized that she was part of that institution, so perhaps that said something about the student as well, because yes, Maebelle thought it was an incredibly stupid decision for her to have done this. She didn’t state that out loud though, mainly because it wouldn’t come out right. If anything, it was going to sound like an offence. “That sign is not your property.” Mae stated as her own eyes narrowed a tad bit.

With the dare slipping from Harmony’s lips, it intensified the gardener’s annoyance and baffled reaction, which both led to the plants around her responding to their caregiver’s tension. Hands balled up by her sides and the young woman had to tuck them in the pockets of her jacket to prevent herself from taking any actions. “I rather don’t.” She mumbled while shifting uncomfortably for a second. If needed, yes, Mae would make her.

As for the name… yeah. That balloon didn’t go up. “Aren’t you too young to have had a child?” That being a rhetorical question. While not often mingling with other staff, Maebelle was aware who Tak was. “But too old to act like this?” A hand slipped from the pocket now, gesturing at the sign.

“You better clean it before the paint goes dry.”

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony didn't see herself as part of the institution. More like a prisoner. And she couldn't wait to get away. Of course, she failed to realize that being a good student and staying out of trouble would actually help her to get out of Hammel on time.

"So?" Harmony said. "It's not like it's yours either. I don't see your name on it." Harmony was starting to think maybe she would be able to talk her way out of this. Of course her opinions on how well a conversation was going were not always correct. Still, you had to admire her determination, right?

Harmony failed to notice the plants reacting to the woman's frustration. She was more distracted by the woman calling her on the wrong name. "A child?" she said, hoping to stall for time as much. "Uh yeah...I meant...I'm her roommate...yeah..."

Harmony actually laughed at the woman's last statement. "Um, I'm pretty sure it's already dry lady. Plus you don't clean art."

Yeah, this was totally going well.

[Deleted]

Maebelle was not sure if it was best to counter the student’s words with witty remarks, but she would find out about that soon enough. “My name might be hidden underneath all the paint.” Arching an eyebrow, a hand once more motioned at the sign.

While she was not ‘trained’ to handle students, the woman did feel a certain responsibility towards the institute. In this case it seemed necessary to make sure justify would prevail. Of course Mae needed to unravel the truth for that. “You’re not a good liar.” What was the point in stalling time? It just meant Harmony would be stuck longer in this situation.

“Oh”, the gardener mouthed for a second. For a second empathy showed, but that disappeared the second Mae spoke up again. “That’s not fun for you then. Dry paint requires more and harder scrubbing… And sadly this is no art either, so all your excuses and arguments are turning against you.”

Her voice sounded a tad bit less annoyed at that point, and Mae once more tucked hands in the pockets of her coat. “You can borrow one of my gardening buckets.” Since the girl didn’t appear to be motivated to undo this vandalism, Maebelle figured she could at least make that offer to bring across the message that she was serious.

“And I advise using warm water. It is quite cold out.”

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

"You're name is 'Hammel'?" Harmony asked, cracking up. "Man, it must suck to be you." It would be bad enough having the lame hole of morons printed on your business cards, but to have it as your name, sheesh. Harmony knew the woman was just trying to make some sort of idiotic point, but she was caught up in the realization she may have just found a name she hated worse than her own.

"Aw, now you've really hurt my feelings," Harmony said, sarcastically and faking a pout. Still, she was starting to wonder if it even mattered if this woman knew who she was. She wasn't a teacher, at least not one Harmony knew of. So in Harmony's book the woman had no power.

"This is totally art!" Harmony yelled. "Sheesh. Don't you know anything? Art is expression. I'm expressing myself. So this is art."

"Gee thanks...not," Harmony said. "You can't tell me what to do. So if you want it clean, why don't you clean it." As Harmony said this, she started looking around for an exit route. There was no way she was spending the rest of her day scrubbing a stupid sign. She'd done it before and knew how much of a pain spray paint could be.